Remembering Humorous Cide, a gutsy longshot of a horse who practically gained the Triple Crown
Jockey Jose Santos rides Humorous Cide to victory within the 128th Preakness Stakes in Could 2003. Al Behrman/AP disguise caption
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Al Behrman/AP
Jockey Jose Santos rides Humorous Cide to victory within the 128th Preakness Stakes in Could 2003.
Al Behrman/AP
One of the vital storied horses in thoroughbred racing historical past, Humorous Cide, died this week on the age of 23.
Small in stature, the feisty chestnut was an unknown when he was entered into the Kentucky Derby in 2003. Humorous Cide confronted 12-1 odds — the definition of a longshot. A New York state-bred horse had by no means gained the large race.
However when the gates opened on that Could morning at Churchill Downs, Humorous Cide ran sturdy.
“I couldn’t imagine my eyes,” one in all his co-owners, Harold Cring, recalled in a 2007 interview with North Nation Public Radio. “That is our horse out entrance. I stored ready for one thing to crumble.”
Humorous Cide held on to win. It was a life-altering second for the horse’s house owners, a bunch of highschool pals from a tiny city known as Sacketts Harbor in northern New York who had taken up horse-racing as a pastime.
“We have been simply sitting round having a pair cocktails as we have been usually doing, and the thought got here as much as purchase a horse,” stated Jon Constance, the village’s former mayor and one other of Humorous Cide’s co-owners. “From that day ahead, our life has modified.”
The Kentucky Derby win was additionally a pinnacle second for veteran jockey Jose Santos, who retired in 2007. “I got here all the best way from Chile chasing a dream and I acquired the dream, you recognize, and I did it with Humorous Cide,” Santos stated.
At first, the win in Kentucky appeared like a fluke. It was broadly portrayed as a feel-good story a couple of blue-collar horse owned by a bunch of small-town guys who acquired fortunate.
Then two weeks later on the Preakness Stakes, Humorous Cide gained once more, dominating the sphere by nearly 10 lengths.
Ultimately, Humorous Cide wasn’t in a position to seize the Triple Crown. A bigger, extra pedigreed thoroughbred known as Empire Maker gained the Belmont Stakes that yr.
Nonetheless, it was an epic run. By the point Humorous Cide retired in 2007, he’d gained greater than $3.5 million for his house owners.
“Humorous Cide simply beloved to run,” Constance recalled in an interview with NPR this week. “He beloved to get on the market and beloved to indicate the remainder of them. He might need been small however he was highly effective.”
The previous mayor of Sacketts Harbor stated most of the horse’s co-owners who skilled that outstanding yr collectively nonetheless dwell within the village.
“We seldom go per week with out going to any individual’s home. We’re all very shut. And by the best way, I dwell on Humorous Cide Drive now,” Constance stated, noting that the village named a brand new avenue after their well-known horse.
Humorous Cide spent the final 15 years of his life in consolation at a horse farm in Kentucky earlier than passing this week of problems linked to cholic.
